Programming Languages And Operational Semantics

This book describes the mathematical aspects of the semantics of programming languages. The main goals are to provide formal tools to assess the meaning of programming constructs in both a language-independent and a machine-independent way and to prove properties about programs, such as whether they terminate, or whether their result is a solution of the problem they are supposed to solve. In order to achieve this the authors first present, in an elementary and unified way, the theory of certain topological spaces that have proved of use in the modeling of various families of typed lambda calculi considered as core programming languages and as meta-languages for denotational semantics. This theory is now known as Domain Theory, and was founded as a subject by Scott and Plotkin. One of the main concerns is to establish links between mathematical structures and more syntactic approaches to semantics, often referred to as operational semantics, which is also described. This dual approach has the double advantage of motivating computer scientists to do some mathematics and of interesting mathematicians in unfamiliar application areas from computer science.

"Programming languages embody the pragmatics of designing software systems, and also the mathematical concepts which underlie them. Anyone who wants to know how, for example, object-oriented programming rests upon a firm foundation in logic should read this book.

Written for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, Foundations for Programming Languages uses a series of typed lambda calculi to study the axiomatic, operational, and denotational semantics of sequential programming languages. Later chapters are devoted to progressively more sophisticated type systems.Compared to other texts on the subject, Foundations for Programming Languages is distinguished primarily by its inclusion of material on universal algebra and algebraic data types, imperative languages and Floyd-Hoare logic, and advanced chapters on polymorphism and modules, subtyping and object-oriented concepts, and type inference. The book is mathematically oriented but includes discussion, motivation, and examples that make the material accessible to students specializing in software systems, theoretical computer science, or mathematical logic.Foundations for Programming Languages is suitable as a reference for professionals concerned with programming languages, software validation or verification, and programming, including those working with software modules or object-oriented programming.Foundations of Computing series

The study of type systems for programming languages now touches many areas of computer science, from language design and implementation to software engineering, network security, databases, and analysis of concurrent and distributed systems. This book offers accessible introductions to key ideas in the field, with contributions by experts on each topic.

The study of type systems for programming languages now touches many areas of computer science, from language design and implementation to software engineering, network security, databases, and analysis of concurrent and distributed systems.